Sophitz: A Week to Find Love

Chapter 26

Tam's P.O.V. 

"AN ART CLASS?" my sister squealed. "That's so cool! But what's an art class?" Biana gestured towards the whole room - which was filled with all sorts of art supplies. 

"You can make whatever you want!" Biana explained happily. Everyone seemed pretty amazed at the aspect of being able to make any creation they wanted. But I wasn't so easily impressed. In fact, there was rarely anything that ever impressed me. Well... Maybe one thing. But I was still deciding about that. 

"I'm gonna make a statue!" Keefe announced. 

"Of yourself, I presume?" Marella asked. 

"Well, duh!" Keefe replied. "Wanna help me?" Marella thought about it for a moment. 

"Only if we make my statue too," she compromised. 

"Deal!" Keefe agreed. And they both raced off to the pottery section. 

"Ooh! Can we make a statue too, Dex?" Linh asked. "It could be a wedding statue! We should tell Keefe and Marella that and put it on our cake! Brides and grooms do that, right? You know, those tiny little statues?" 

"Um..." Dex seemed hesitant. "Well, a statue is awfully heavy..." Linh looked at him pleading eyes I knew all too well. Once she started the puppy dog eyes, you really couldn't say no. It's why I tried to avoid looking her straight in the eyes when she begged me for something. 

"Alright," Dex relented, "we can make some wedding statues." Linh squealed something unintelligible before sprinting towards Keefe and Marella to tell them her idea. From the looks on their faces, they probably also thought it was a great idea. Meanwhile, I thought it was a terrible idea. Why would you put mini statues of yourself on a cake? It made no sense at all. 

"What should we do?" Fitz asked Sophie. Sophie seemed to turn red and shrugged. 

"Whatever you want?" she replied uncertainly. Fitz looked around the room. 

"How about just some simple painting?" he suggested. "I'm not great at art." 

"Me neither," Sophie said with a grin. "I remember this one art piece I made in third grade..." The two walked away towards the easels. 

"I guess we're the last ones!" Biana exclaimed. "What would you like to do?" 

"Nothing," I answered truthfully. All this art stuff didn't really intrigue me as it did for my friends. 

"Surely there's something," Biana said. "Everyone loves art!" I shook my head.

"Not me," I replied. Biana rubbed her chin thoughtfully and then pointed her fingers towards the ceiling in an "aha" fashion. 

"AHA!" she shouted. "I have a plan. We will not stop till we find an art category you like." She nodded, now determined to make me like art, and headed off to the first section. I suppose I could've stayed where I was, but I was frankly interested in whether she'd actually be able to make me like art. So far, nobody had ever made me like something I didn't want to like. Not even Linh. 

"First off is pencil sketching," Biana announced. She grabbed two pieces of paper and some pencils, handing me the supplies necessary for this "pencil sketching" whatever. 

Then she went to work, furiously sketching something on her paper. I wasn't as eager to start and just stared at the piece of paper for a long time. Eventually, Biana saw I hadn't done anything and ordered me to draw just one thing. And I figured I could do that - but just because I did it didn't mean I liked it. So I took my pencil and drew the tiniest dot right in the center of the page. 

"Huh..." Biana murmured, seeing my art. "Well... At least you got it perfectly in the center! That's something. And anyhoo, I think you'll like this next one even better." She stood up and headed towards a different section of the room and I was about to follow her when I noticed her artwork. 

And... I really couldn't lie, it was a beautiful piece of artwork. She had somehow drawn a night sky in a city only using two colors. I wasn't artistic - or even liked art - but Biana certainly was. 

"Come on, Tam!" Biana urged, and I quickly folded the piece of paper up, stuffing it in my pocket. It just seemed like something nice I could keep. 

"This is called scrapbooking," Biana informed. She motioned towards the colorful pieces of paper, stickers, patterned tape, markers, and plenty more stuff. "You decorate something using stuff like this - and the best part is it can be anything! You can use all the materials or only two. It all depends on you." She took a seat at the table and went to work on her scrapbook thingy. I supposed it wasn't the worst thing I had ever done. And I could rip paper so that was a plus I guess. 

So for the next 30 or so minutes, I just ripped paper and randomly placed it on my piece of paper. 

"Tam!" Biana exclaimed excitedly when she saw my work. "You did a great job!" 

"I did?" I asked. "I didn't mean to do that." 

"It's a good thing, Tam," Biana assured. "Are you going to keep it? Frame it, perhaps?" 

"Uh, no thank you," I replied immediately. I wasn't about to frame my artwork. 

"Alright, then I'll keep it! It'll be a wonderful reminder of this wonderful day." She carefully folded the piece of paper and placed it in her pocket. Then she promptly moved on to the next section. 

"Okay, this is my final attempt," Biana told me, putting on a raincoat-looking thing over her head. "Put this on." I was reluctant to wear such a ridiculous thing, but Biana just forced it on when I refused. 

"You'll thank me later," she informed me. "Now, this is watercolor. It's really fun - but it can get messy." She dipped her brush in purple, then did something completely unexpected - she flicked the brush so all the paint splattered onto the canvas paper. 

"Try it!" she encouraged. It did look interesting... So I tried it. Biana and I just spent an hour flicking paint randomly on a canvas and I almost even had fun. Almost. 

"Wow!" she breathed after we had finished. "Two beautiful pieces of artwork." I had to admit that my artwork wasn't as bad as I expected. But Biana's was on a different level entirely, as I expected. She was great at everything she tried, mainly because of her determination and positive attitude. Her painting looked imperfectly perfect. 

"I... like yours," I complimented. Biana smiled and hugged me. 

"I like yours too," she told me. 

And although I wasn't impressed with art during this entire time, I was impressed with something else. Well, someone else: Biana. She was just... Different. And I liked it different. And that was all I knew for now.